LOWELL, Mass. — It was late afternoon Saturday when Mike Fransoso stepped into the portable batting cage at LeLacheur Park to get some swings in before the game.

In a black T-shirt and shorts with the yellow "P" embroidered — signifying that his first job out of college is with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization — he started spraying line drives from the left-hand side of the plate. A liner to center. A gapper to left-center. A bullet through the hole.

It didn't go unnoticed by his teammates on the Single-A Jamestown Jammers.

"FRAN-so-so!" one yelled

"I remember that guy!" shouted another.

Minor league baseball, to those who play it and follow it, is described as a grind. Players live in dorm rooms at Jamestown Community College. Days at the ballpark and gym routinely stretch out to 10 hours, without days off. Bus rides seem twice as long.

With just two hits in his previous 13 at-bats, Fransoso was trying to ensure that a few cool games with the bat wouldn't evolve into his first pro slump.

But a grind? Not for him. There's nothing else Fransoso would rather be doing.

"A lot of people have said that to me," he said, talking outside the third-base dugout before Saturday night's New York-Penn League game against the Lowell Spinners. "It's my job now. I'm getting paid to do this. This is my career. People do other things, but this is what I do for a living. I play baseball every day and I enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, they tell you to quit and get out of there.

"But I love doing this. The grind is part of it."

The Portsmouth native brought a .320 average into Saturday's game, after getting selected by the Pirates in the 27th round of Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft last month. Anybody who follows the game knows that players in Single-A ball can be as few as three promotions away from reaching the big leagues.

It's something boys all over the country dream of, but few can bring into focus as clearly as the 22-year-old Fransoso has.

From his days as a youth, waiting for his father, Rick, to finish his postal route so they could play catch; to leading local teams like Portsmouth Little League, Portsmouth High School and Booma Post 6 to state championships; to establishing himself as the best collegiate shortstop in the Northeast at the University of Maine, Fransoso has always put baseball first.

"The thing with Mike is that he always had that drive," said Matt Gladu, an assistant coach at Portsmouth High School. "He always wanted to be a professional baseball player."

Now, he's not just doing what he's always wanted to do for a living, he's also giving his entire community a source of pride. In a sport dominated by players from the South and West, as well as Latin America, the kid from Portsmouth is fitting right in.

"We thought he could be a good player when he was a freshman at Portsmouth and he goes on to get a college scholarship," said Gladu. "We were like, 'He'll probably have a nice little career at Maine' and then he's (named) the Player of the Year in the conference.

"Realistically, did I expect him to be a professional baseball player when he was in high school? Probably not, because it's just such a long shot. Now I'm saying, that's what happens when you work so hard at something you love to do."

Beating the odds

Based in Jamestown, N.Y., the Jammers make just two trips to New England this summer. They'll play two more games here today and Monday, and they'll take on the Vermont Lake Monsters in Burlington, Vt., Aug. 6-8.

This weekend is giving the people who knew Fransoso in Portsmouth a chance to cheer him on.

"It's unbelievable," said Tim Hopley, the coach at Portsmouth High School. "There's so many people that have been involved with him. It'll be like Portsmouth South down there those three days because so many people had a chance to know him, or coach him, or play with him."

The Single-A Jammers are a collection of players ranging in age from 18-year-old Latin American outfielders Elvis Escobar and Harold Ramirez to 25-year-old pitcher Kurt Yacko, who was signed as a free agent last year after being released by the Colorado Rockies.

Only Fransoso, who's played both shortstop and second base, and outfielder Jeff Roy, a Rhode Island product, are from New England, a typically small number. But what Fransoso lacks in size — 6-foot, 175 pounds — and geography, he makes up for in athleticism and baseball sense.

"Some of the things you can't teach, Mike always had," said local coach and St. Louis Cardinals scout Dave Hoyt, who owns USA Training Centers in Newington. "His head's on a swivel. He sees the game. He's on top of the game and he puts himself in the best position to succeed."

By the time he finished high school, he had lettered in five sports — baseball (all four years), hockey (his freshman year), basketball, golf and football, which he began playing as a junior. As a senior, he quarterbacked the Clippers to the Division III championship game.

"He only played two years of football in his life," said Gladu, "and he was one of the best quarterbacks in the state."

He was one of the architects of Portsmouth's national-record, 89-game high school win streak, leading the baseball Clippers to undefeated seasons and Division II championships in his junior and senior seasons.

He was teammates his freshman year with left-handed hurler Chris Anderson, the first Portsmouth pitcher drafted in this era. But Fransoso and pitcher Ben Hart (Vermont/UMass) were the players who started the wave of Division I scholarship offers; former teammates like Mike Montville (Maryland), Nate Jones (Wake Forest), Aidan O'Leary (Manhattan) and Keegan Taylor (Northeastern) followed suit.

"He's one of the players that's succeeded at every level he's been a part of it," said Hart. "The sky's the limit for him."

A warm reception

Back when Hoyt's indoor facility was located at the Southgate Plaza, Fransoso was one of the first regular visitors when he was 12 or 13 years old.

"It got to the point that he spent so much time in the building, I hired him," said Hoyt.

The work ethic was always there, but Fransoso had to prove he could play against the best competition, even while he was standing out at Portsmouth and later at UMaine. He got a great opportunity to play in the Cape Cod Baseball League last summer and made the most of it, batting .268 using the wooden bats — third best on the team and 40 points above the league average — and adding more luster to his resume.

"The Cape league from Maine was probably the biggest jump I'd ever faced in my baseball career," he said. "I had my struggles at the beginning of the year adjusting to that, but once I got comfortable it was a little bit easier.

"Coming into here, the jump from Maine was big as well, maybe bigger. It's pretty similar to the Cape — you see a good pitcher every single night, including the bullpen."

After finishing up infield practice Saturday, Fransoso walked over to the third-base stands, where he greeted and got hugs from his parents and girlfriend. Other friends will make the walk down the steps to the field today and Monday to shake his hand, get an embrace, pay a tribute.

"It's real cool to see the progress he's made," said Hart. "We started playing together when we were 5 years old, playing in the backyard. ...; It's just like one of those things you dream about."

The grind, for just a few moments, will be interrupted.

But not for long. Not when Fransoso is doing exactly what he wants to do.

"He had some time to practice with us last spring before he went to the Cape," said Hopley. "Everyone who he's invested with sees him for what he is: He's a hard-working kid with a goal and a plan."